Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-09-03

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vp the highway Of t1s future, we could sec it
crossed by pneumonia. and peurisies, and
assumptions, and colliding rail trains, and
runaway horses, and breaking bridges, and
funeral professions. Are you so certain you
nre going to live ten or twenty years, you cen
warrant your household any comfort after you
90 away from thems Beside that, the vast
majority Of men die poori Two only out Of
n hundred succeed in business. Are
you very certain you are going
90 be one of the two? Rich one
day, poor the next. A man in New York
got S2,G00009, and the money turned his
brain and he died in lunatic asylum. All
his property was left with the business firm,
and they swamped it; and then the family of
the insane man were left without dollar In
eighteen months the prosperity, the insanity,
the insolvency and the complete domestic
ruin. Beside that, there are men who die
solvent, who are solvent before thew get
under the ground, or before their estate is
settled up. How soon the auctioneers mallet
can knock the life out of an estate man
thinks the property is worth $4,000: under
forced sale it brings $1,000. The business
man takes advantage of the crisis and he
compels the widow of his deceased part
ner to sell out to him at a ruinous
price, or lose all. The stock was SUD-
posed to be very valuable, but it has
been SO "watered" that when the executor
tries to sell it he is laughed out of Wall street,
or the administrator is ordered by the surro-
gate TO wind up the whole affair. The estate
was supposed ut the mans death to be worth
5000; but after the Indebtedness had been
met, and the bills Of the doctor and the un-
dertaker, and the tombstone cutter have been
paid, there is nothing left. That means the
children are to come home from school and
go to work. That means the complete hard
ship of the wife, turned out with nothing but
n needle to fight the great battle of the world.
Tear down the lambre1uins, close the piano,
rip uD the Administer. sell out the wardrobe
AMI let the mother take child in each hand
anl trudge ont into Tire desert of the world
a lie Insurance would have hindered all
that.
But, says some one. 81 am man of small
means, and can't afford to pay the premi-
UNI" That is sometimes lawful and a genu-
ire excuse, and there is no answer to it: but
in nine cases out of ten when man says that
he smokes up in cigars, and drinks down in
wine, and expends in Injuries enough money
to have paid the premium on a life insurance
policy which would have kept his family from
beggary when he is dead. A man ought to
put himself down on the strictest economy
until he can meet this Christian necessity.
You have no right to the luxuries of life I'M
til you have made such provision admire
what was said by Rev. DR. Guthrie, the great
Scottish preacher. A few years before his
uediu ue SJOOu III puDUc meeting and de-
clared: when | came to Edinburgh the peo-
pie sometimes laughed at my black stockings
and at my cotton umbrella, and they said 1
looked like a common powman, and they de-
rided me because lived in house for which
! paid 425 q year rent, and oftentimes |
walked when | would have been very glad to
have cab; but, gentlemen, did all that be-
cause / wanted to pay the premium on a life
insurance that would keep my family com
Portable if | should dien That take to be
the right expression of an honest, intelli-
gent, Christian man.
The utter indifference OF many people on
this important subject accounts for much of
the crime and tie pauperism Of the day.
Who are these children sweeping the cross
ings with broken broom and begging of your
penny as:you 60 by! Who are these lost
saaWis. Ala thcsyfs, y victims Of want;
" MANI q tue csss forecast of parents
and grdndpar 5A2Ag1t have prohibited it.
God only Lao 5 how they struggled to do
right. They nrayn.l until the tears froze on
their cheeks. thoy Eewei on the sack until the
breaking Of sAs Gay; But they could not get
enough money TO pay the rent; they
could not get enough money TO de-
Gently clothe themselves: and one day
in that wretched home the angel OF
purity and the angel Of crime fought
great fight between the empty bread tray
and the fireleSs hearth, and the blackwinge1
angel shriezed: aha! have won the day. y
Says some man: d" ba.ieve what you say;
II IS right and Christian, and l mean some
time to attend TO this matter" My friend,
YOU are going to lose the comfort of your
household in the same way the sinner loses
heaven, by procrastination. | see all
around me the destitute and suffering families
OF parents who meant some day to attend
to this Christian duty. During the process
Of adjournment the man gets his feet wet,
then comes Il chill and delirium and the
doleful shake 0 the doctors head, and the OBJ
sequies. If there be anything more pitiable
tnana woman delicately brought up, and on
her marriage day by an indnlgent father
given to n man to whom she is the chief ioy
and pride OF life until the moment of his death,
and then that same woman going out with
helpless children at her lack to struggle for
bread in n world where brawny muscle and
rugged so / are necessa:y-I say, if there be
anything 'lara pitaole than that do not
know wha4 it is And yet there are good
women who are Indifferent in regard to their
husbands duty in this respect and there are
those positively hostile as though life
insurance subjected man to some
fatality. There is I'm Brooklyn to-day
very poor woman keeping candy shop,
who vehemently opposed the insurance
of her husbands life, and when application
had been made for policy Of $4,000 she
frustrated it. She would never have doc
ulilcHb IN Jne house Iniu implied IL was pos
siJle for her husband ever 10 die One day, in
quick revolution of machinery, his life was
instantly dashed out. What is the sequel
She is, with annoying tug, making the half
OF a miserable living. Her two children have
been taken away from her in order that they
may he clothed and schooled, ana her life is
to be a prolonged hardship. man, before
forty eight hours have passed away, appear
at the desk of some of our great life in.
surance companies. have the stethoscope Of
the physis.1n put to your heart and lungs,
and by the seal OF some honest company de-
cree that your children shall not be subjected
TO the humiliation Of financial struggle ID tae
day of your demise.
But must ask the men engaged in life in
surance business whether they feel the i'm
portance Of their trust, and charge them
must that they need divine grace to help
them in their work. In this day when there
are SO many riyalries in your line OF bust
ness, you will be tempted TO overstate tbs
amount Of assets and the extent of the
surplus, and you will be tempted to
abuse the franchise Of the company,
ald make up the deficits of one year by
adding some Of the receiyts Of another year;
and you will be tempted to sead oa5 mean,
anonymous circulars derogatory to other
companies, forgetful Of the fact that anony
nous communication means only two things
the cOwarlice of the author aud tha inaIi-